Dubinsky, David

Dubinsky, David (b. Dobnievski)

(1892–1982) labor leader; born in Brest Litovsk, Russia. Beginning his labor activism in Russia, for which he was exiled to Siberia, he escaped and emigrated to the United States in 1911. He joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in New York as a cloak cutter and was elected its president (1932–66). He served as labor adviser to the National Recovery Administration (1933–35). Under his leadership the ILGWU became one of the most successful unions in America—financially solid yet honest, powerful but personal, progressive yet anti-communist. An early supporter of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), he led the ILGWU back into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1940. When the AFL and the CIO merged (1955) he became a member of the new executive council and then a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. He was active in the international labor movement, representing the AFL at the International Labor Organization and in the UN Economic and Social Council. He also played an active role in areas outside unions, helping to form the American Labor Party (1936), the Liberal Party (1944), and Americans for Democratic Action (1947).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.